Hay Belly in Calf - Help Please!

[skylavaulter]

We have a five month old holstein that we bottle raised. She was a sickly calf from the start and we almost lost her twice but she made it. Weaned her off her milk replacer when she was 3 months old and switched to calf starter pellet feed and hay 2x/day. We had issues with the other animals in the pasture eating her calf starter (pony, goats) and no way to separate the animals with each feeding, so we now offer hay to all the animals 2x daily. According to the feed store guy, this is fine. Now I'm reading up on this and discovering this is NOT good for her rumen. She has developed quite a low hanging hay belly (pot belly) and my question is what to do to get rid of the hay belly (is that possible at this point?) and what to feed her from here on out. We were going to raise her as a dairy cow but are thinking now to raise her until she's a nice size and take her to auction. I don't want to bring an amimal in bad condition to the auction and not get much for her. Thanks!

 

[dun]

She needs protein, more then is available from jsut hay. Even alfalfa hay won;t provide easily enough digestible protein to do it. Start her on grain and gradually increase it till she's eating about 1 1/2 - 2 % of her weight. Remember as she grows she will need more grain to keep it at that percentage. Start gradually with less then half a pound a day then gradually increase it.

 

[skylavaulter]

Thanks! Should I keep with the hay as well or switch gradually just to grain?

 

[skylavaulter]

Any good grain suggestions for her age?

 

[M5farm]

What dun said. I will add 2 cheap wire cattle panels can be put up to allow calf to be able to eat his ration without other animals getting it.

 

[skylavaulter]

Yeah we're going to have to rig something up to separate during feedings.

 

[dun]

Any decent grain 13% protein minimum, 16% would be better. This isn;t going to be a fast fix, she may take another year to get to looking right.

 

[skylavaulter]

Any decent grain 13% protein minimum, 16% would be better. This isn;t going to be a fast fix, she may take another year to get to looking right.

Oh wow. That's slooooow. Thank you!

 

[dun]

Split the grain into 2 feedings a day.

 

[Tim/South]

Thanks! Should I keep with the hay as well or switch gradually just to grain?

She will still need hay. Once she is on feed, the rumen will function better and make much better use of the hay she eats. She will need more hay as she becomes more efficient in utilizing what she is being fed..

 

[milkmaid]

Picture?

Usually plan on feeding grain until 400-500lbs, then most calves will do fine on good quality hay alone. Before that point they don't have rumen capacity to eat enough hay to get their daily nutritional requirements.

Feed 1% of her body weight in good quality grain every day for a week, then move it up to 1.5, then 2 - most calves will turn around in a month or two with good feed. Esp at her age she hasn't been stunted that long.

 

[Kingfisher]

Where are you located? Dun when you say grain" are cubes a good substitute?

 

[dun]

Stunting wouldn;t be much of an issue. It's the overly ditended hay belly that she is going to have to grow into.

 

[dun]

Where are you located? Dun when you say grain" are cubes a good substitute?

Not really. You need the nutrition more concentrated.

 

[Kingfisher]

Where are you located? Dun when you say grain" are cubes a good substitute?

Not really. You need the nutrition more concentrated.

What do you mean by "more concentrated?" When you say "grain" what exactly do you mean by that?

 

[dun]

Where are you located? Dun when you say grain" are cubes a good substitute?

Not really. You need the nutrition more concentrated.

What do you mean by "more concentrated?" When you say "grain" what exactly do you mean by that?

Cubes are mostly roughage, you need more protein in a smaller package, like grain. Grain would be soybeen meal, corn (energy), cottonseed, usually some barley or oats is thrown in too. Corn Gluten pellets is high in proetein too. About every decent company makes a balanced 13-16% protein feed mixture. I think even the generci sweetfeed for horses runs around 13% or so.

 

[Kingfisher]

Ok something like a what we call a "sweet feed?" Or grower Ration.

 

[skylavaulter]

I found a few grain brands for growing calves on tractor supply's website that seem to fit the protein requirements. I'll stop by there tomorrow and pick some up. For the meantime, we'll just pull her from the pasture (she'll accept a halter) and feed her on a leadrope (that's going to get old real quick. Gotta build a separate feeding pen!). Now her weight - we don't have a large animal scale. Do they sell weight tapes for cattle? I'll have to see about that as well at TSC tomorrow.
We are located in southeast PA. Will upload a picture from my phone when I get out of work in 2 hours (unless my husband can send me a pic through email - I'll call and ask). Her abdomen would always bloat up a bit when grazing in our front paddock, but would go back down within hours. About 1.5 months ago, I noticed it was starting to round out more and over the past few weeks it's really just ballooned up. It looks like you could stick a pin in her and she'd fly all over the pasture like a deflating balloon :lol: She's also due for a worming and I was wondering if that could be a contributor.

ETA: How's this grain? Producer's Pride Calf Starter. It says up to 12 months and it's 16.2% protein
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/p ... rter-50-lb

 

[dun]

Worming may help, but you need to get the proper level of nutrition in her.

 

[TexasBred]

I found a few grain brands for growing calves on tractor supply's website that seem to fit the protein requirements. I'll stop by there tomorrow and pick some up. For the meantime, we'll just pull her from the pasture (she'll accept a halter) and feed her on a leadrope (that's going to get old real quick. Gotta build a separate feeding pen!). Now her weight - we don't have a large animal scale. Do they sell weight tapes for cattle? I'll have to see about that as well at TSC tomorrow.
We are located in southeast PA. Will upload a picture from my phone when I get out of work in 2 hours (unless my husband can send me a pic through email - I'll call and ask). Her abdomen would always bloat up a bit when grazing in our front paddock, but would go back down within hours. About 1.5 months ago, I noticed it was starting to round out more and over the past few weeks it's really just ballooned up. It looks like you could stick a pin in her and she'd fly all over the pasture like a deflating balloon :lol: She's also due for a worming and I was wondering if that could be a contributor.

ETA: How's this grain? Producer's Pride Calf Starter. It says up to 12 months and it's 16.2% proteinhttp://www.cattletoday.com/forum ... p=1205141#
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/p ... rter-50-lb

I wouldn't feed anything from Tractor Supply. For the short run just buy a good high quality textured horse feed with 16% crude protein if possible. "Good" horse feeds are usually much higher quality than most cattle feeds. It will be highly fortified, high in energy and have adequate high quality sources of protein in addition to the large amount of corn and oats. Purina Omolene would work fine.